Our first look at a Martian sunset can tell us a lot about the Red Planet’s atmosphere

Image: NASA

As part of its ongoing study of Mars’ clouds, NASA’s Curiosity rover recently captured a stunning image of a Martian sunset. As the Sun sinks over the horizon, its light forms into sun rays that can be seen banding across the sky.

Technically known as crepuscular rays, this is the first time the phenomena has been imaged in such detail on Mars. And by studying the way the rays shine through the clouds, scientists can learn more about the Martian atmosphere and weather system.

Although Mars’ atmosphere is extremely thin, at just 1 percent the density of Earth’s atmosphere, it is still active and changeable. The planet experiences high winds of up to 60 miles per hour, which can pick up the fine dust particles coating much of the planet’s...

Continue reading…

Before Your Eyes is a beautiful showcase of what VR storytelling can be

Blink while looking at the eye icon to make something happen. | Image: Skybound Games

Before Your Eyes made me cry inside a VR headset.

Originally released on PC in 2021 and on mobile last year, Before Your Eyes asks you to relive the memories of a child named Benny as he grows up, learns more about his family, and explores his gift for art. But now available for the first time in VR on PlayStation VR2, the experience feels like it’s found a perfect home. It’s an outstanding example of how to tell a powerful story with virtual reality, and it helped me cope with a recent tragedy in my own life.

You play Before Your Eyes primarily by blinking your — the player’s — real eyes. As you move through Benny’s memories, you’ll frequently see icons floating near you that you can blink to interact with. Depending on the context,...

Continue reading…

Can Revel get New York City’s dismal EV charging system out of neutral?

Image: Revel

The company that operates its bright blue electric mopeds actually makes more money from its Tesla Model Y-powered ridehail service. But EVs in a city like New York City don’t make sense without adequate charging.

Continue reading…

The semiautomated social network is coming

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

It makes sense that LinkedIn would be the first major social network to push AI-generated content on its users. The Microsoft-owned company is weird. It’s corporate. It’s full of workfluencer posts and engagement bait that ranges in tone from management consultant bland to cheerfully psychotic. Happily, this is the same emotional spectrum on which AI tends to operate.

LinkedIn isn’t populating its feed with AI chatbots just yet, but last week began sharing “AI-powered conversation starters” with the express purpose of provoking discussion among users. These posts are “developed” with the help of LinkedIn’s editorial team and matched with human experts who can then offer their thoughts on topics like “how to create a consistent brand...

Continue reading…

Vinyl overtakes CD sales for the first time since 1987

Let the boomers in your life know that their dusty record collection is officially trendy now. | Image: Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post

No longer just a niche hobby for dads and hipsters, vinyl is experiencing a major resurgence in mainstream music. According to the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) annual revenue report, vinyl records outsold CDs in the US last year for the first time since 1987, selling 41 million units against 33 million for CD.

Vinyl record sales have consistently increased over the last 16 years according to the RIAA report published on Thursday, now accounting for 71 percent of all physical music format revenue. The growth margins here aren’t trivial, either — while physical formats as a whole increased by 4 percent, earning $1.7 billion between 2021 and 2022, vinyl sales alone accounted for $1.2 billion, experiencing a 17 percent...

Continue reading…

WhatsApp says it will leave the UK rather than weaken encryption under Online Safety Bill

Image: The Verge

The head of WhatsApp says the messaging app will depart the UK if it’s forced to weaken its encryption standards under the country’s upcoming Online Safety Bill.

WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart briefed reporters on Thursday (as reported by The Guardian, Politico, and Wired), criticizing the legislation as the most concerning set of online regulations in the Western world.

“We’ve recently been blocked in Iran, for example. But we’ve never seen a liberal democracy do that,” said Cathcart, reports The Guardian. “The reality is, our users all around the world want security. Ninety-eight per cent of our users are outside the UK. They do not want us to lower the security of the product, and just as a straightforward matter, it would be an odd...

Continue reading…

Fortnite now requires Windows 10 or higher on PC

Image: Epic Games

Fortnite’s new cyberpunk-themed “Mega” season launches Friday, but if you’re on PC, you’ll need to be on Windows 10 or higher to be able to check out its cyberpunk vibes. The change means that Fortnite no longer supports machines on Windows 7 and 8.

The shift doesn’t come as a total surprise. Developer Epic Games said in December that it planned to drop support for those older versions of Windows with the release of Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2 — which is the specific season Epic is launching today.

As previously announced, starting with Battle Royale Chapter 4 Season 2, players will be required to use Windows 10 or higher in order to continue playing Fortnite natively on PC in an officially supported manner. Windows 7 and 8 will be...

Continue reading…

Fortnite turns into a cyberpunk anime in new season

Image: Epic Games

Fortnite is going even more anime in its new season. Chapter 4 Season 2 of the battle royale kicks off today, and it’s subtitled “Mega.” The big change is a huge biome that covers the bottom quarter of the map and introduces — among other things — a cyberpunk city to the game.

The new area includes four main locations: Steamy Springs, Kenjutsu Crossing, Knotty Nets, and Mega City. The latter seems to be the most important, kind of like a futuristic take on the classic Tilted Towers, complete with lots of neon signs, holograms, and rain-slicked alleyways. There are also new ways to get around, including a two-seater bike that looks ripped out of Akira, a car that can drift, and the ability to grind on rails like you’re playing Sunset...

Continue reading…

Apple could release HomePod with 7-inch panel early next year, says analyst

The limited display on Apple’s most recent HomePod. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Apple could be preparing to launch a redesigned HomePod in the first half of 2024 equipped with a 7-inch touchscreen, according to a new prediction from noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

According to Kuo the device “could enable tighter integration with Apple’s other hardware products” which would mark “a significant shift in the company’s smart home strategy.” It sounds a lot like it could be designed to act as a smart home controller, similar to what Google offers with its Nest Hub smart displays, or Amazon with its Echo Shows. Apple’s existing HomePods have small circular displays on top, but their functionality is limited and they’re effectively just a fancy status indicator.

“A significant shift in the company’s smart home strategy”

A...

Continue reading…

Meta is cutting its Reels Play bonus program on Instagram and Facebook

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Short-form video creators on Instagram and Facebook will soon lose one way of making money on the platforms.

Meta is ending its Reels Play bonus program, which rewards content creators when they hit certain goals for views on their videos. The change, first reported by Business Insider, will affect creators on Facebook and US creators on Instagram. The company won’t offer any new or renewed Reels Play bonus deals, but will honor existing commitments over the next 30 days, according to Business Insider.

“We are evolving the test of our Reels Play bonus on Instagram and Facebook as we focus on investing in a suite of monetization solutions to help creators earn steady streams of income,” Paige Cohen, a Meta spokesperson, told The Verge in...

Continue reading…

Reddit is sunsetting its Clubhouse clone

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Reddit has announced that it’ll be shutting down Reddit Talk, its live audio conversation feature, on March 21st. In an announcement post, the company says it made the decision because “supporting Talk in the short-term requires significant resourcing - more than we anticipated.” The company will also be shutting down its “Happening Now” page, which exists to help you find active Talks and Live Chats.

Talk was announced in April 2021, a time when audio chatroom app Clubhouse seemed like a big deal and other social networks were rushing to copy its features. The reason why it’s being sunsetted now is apparently that the third party audio vendor Reddit used for the service is also shutting down. According to its post, the company doesn’t...

Continue reading…

Starbucks sold 2,000 NFTs in 20 minutes — coffee not included

Image: Starbucks

It’s been more than a year since NFT sales peaked — and then collapsed — but that’s not stopping enterprising multi-billion dollar corporations from trying to get in on the action.

Starbucks launched its first paid collection of NFTs today, a group of 2,000 digital “stamps,” each priced at $100. Starbucks calls its NFTs “Journey Stamps,” a less technical-sounding term that the uninitiated might use as a way to explain what they just spent money on. And people did buy them — CoinDesk reports that the “stamps” sold out in under 20 minutes.

The coffee company first launched its NFT and Web3 push in December, when it opened up a new membership program called Starbucks Odyssey. An extension of the existing Starbucks rewards program that gives...

Continue reading…

Capcom’s dinosaur shooter is coming to Game Pass this summer

Image: Capcom

Exoprimal, the online multiplayer dinosaur destruction derby game that is, for some reason, not a remake of Dino Crisis, finally has a release date. Capcom announced a slew of other news for the game as a part of its March 2023 presentation. Check out the latest trailer here.

Though it’s a rough time to release a live-service game with _Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’_s release date getting pushed back along with an unfortunate amount of game shut-downs, Exoprimal is slated for release on July 13th. If you can’t wait that long, Capcom also shared that an open beta would be taking place March 17th through 19th — curiously the same dates as the early access open beta of Diablo IV. Check out the website for more details on how to join...

Continue reading…

Resident Evil 4 remake’s new demo is now available

Image: Capcom

Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 remake launches in just a couple weeks, but you can now try it ahead of launch thanks to a new demo, the “Chainsaw Demo.” The demo, which takes place during the beginning village part of the game, is now available on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X / S, and PC (via Steam). You can play the demo as much as you want, and there’s no time restrictions on the demo itself, so you can go at your own pace. (I might need that so I can successfully escape the chainsaw man.)

Resident Evil 4 is a huge remake of the 2005 horror classic in the vein of Capcom’s upgraded versions of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, bringing much-improved graphics and updated gameplay. Based on Capcom’s trailer from February, it looks as if the game...

Continue reading…

The Xbox Series X is on sale at Verizon for $50 off

The Xbox Series X is larger and more powerful than the Series S. It offers a disc drive and can also display games in 4K. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

If you’ve been waiting to make the jump to next-gen gaming, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X is seeing a rare discount at Verizon right now, where you can pick up the console with free two-day shipping for $449.99 ($50 off).

The Series X is essentially a larger, more powerful version of Microsoft’s compact Xbox Series S — which also happens to be on sale right now for $239.99 ($60 off) at Walmart and direct from Microsoft. Unlike the Series S, the bigger Series X supports 4K gaming and a few other enhancements, including faster performance, more storage, and a built-in disc drive. That means you can play both physical games as well as digital titles, whereas you can only play digital games on the Series S. Plus, you can play Xbox exclusives...

Continue reading…

Amazon’s plans for a Creed cinematic universe might lead to an anime series

Michael B. Jordan on the set of Creed III_._ | Image: MGM

Michael B. Jordan might have been speaking somewhat poetically during Creed III’s shooting when he sat Jonathan Majors down to explain how their live-action boxing film was a lot like a shonen anime. But MGM parent company Amazon might be very serious about wanting to follow up on Creed III’s success with an entire cinematic universe that might include, among other things, a Creed animated series.

Deadline reports that in the wake of Creed III’s monumental $58 million domestic debut, Amazon’s now in very early talks with director / star Michael B. Jordan about a number of potential follow-up projects set in the same universe as the films that would continue the story of Adonis Creed and his family.

While the studio’s yet to lock in on...

Continue reading…

Here’s the final trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Image: Nintendo

The final look at The Super Mario Bros. Movie ahead of its theatrical premiere is here. Today, Nintendo and Illumination released what they say is the last trailer for the film, which stars Chris Pratt as the iconic plumber. It’s more of an overview of what to expect, but it includes both a very dark intro and some side-scrolling action. There’s also a good shot of a Mad Max-style battle on Rainbow Road. Good idea for the next Mario Kart.

We got our first proper glimpse of the movie last October (as well as a first listen to Pratt’s take on Mario), and since then, there have been a handful of trailers focusing on characters like Princess Peach (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), and Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen). The rest...

Continue reading…

GM will give the majority of its US team cash if they quit in the next two weeks

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A letter from CEO Mary Barra sent to GM workers on Thursday offered buyouts to many of its 58,000 employees, saying the company plans to trim $2 billion in fixed costs over the next two years. GM announced its plan to cut costs in January, on the same earnings call where it announced a record income of $14.5 billion for 2022. GM plans to spend billions over the next few years transitioning to building electric cars and making other changes.

It’s not alone in making that shift either — Ford announced a split between its gas and electric automotive segments and followed that by laying off thousands of employees in the fall. Ford has said it will spend up to $20 billion reorganizing for EVs on top of the $30 billion it already planned to...

Continue reading…

Microsoft 365’s newest assistant will point out when you make stuff less accessible

The Accessibility Assistant will begin rolling out “in the coming weeks” and will eventually replace Microsoft 365’s current Accessibility Checker. | Illustration: The Verge

Imagine if Clippy didn’t suck and instead made genuinely helpful suggestions to ensure the content you create is accessible to as wide an audience as possible. That’s the idea behind a new tool Microsoft announced today at its annual Microsoft Ability Summit. The new “Accessibility Assistant” for Microsoft 365 office software is like a spelling or grammar checking tool that will instruct users on how to prevent and correct accessibility issues in real time when creating content.

A new person-shaped icon will be used to flag the location of accessibility issues across your work, such as low contrast between text and background — the most frequent accessibility issue that occurs in Word documents, according to Microsoft. The Accessibility...

Continue reading…

Delta Air Lines lays out its plan to leave fossil fuels behind

A plane in Washington, DC, on February 16th, 2023. | Image: Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Delta Air Lines laid out a new plan to wean its planes off fossil fuels in an effort to address climate change. The goal, the airline said, is for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to make up at least 95 percent of its fuel consumption by 2050.

SAF is made from waste or crops through a process that’s supposed to cancel out much of the greenhouse gas emissions a plane produces. It’s not a perfect system and could create new environmental problems. And with very little SAF produced today, it’s going to be an uphill climb for Delta to hit its 2050 target. Nevertheless, SAF is largely seen by the industry as the most viable alternative to fossil fuels for now.

With very little SAF produced today, it’s going to be an uphill climb for Delta to...

Continue reading…

Microsoft Word is finally getting a keyboard shortcut to paste plaintext

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft is finally adding a keyboard shortcut to Word that lets you paste something as plaintext, stripping it of any formatting it had when you copied it. It’s the same Control + Shift + V shortcut that’s used in many other apps, and it’s currently rolling out to people using the Word beta on both Mac and PC, according to Microsoft’s Jennifer Gentleman.

Word has long let you remove formatting from whatever you pasted after the fact, using the little ribbon that pops up and gives you the option to keep the original formatting, match the formatting of your document, or just use plaintext. Some people may prefer that option — one of my colleagues from the UK said the Ctrl + Shift + V shortcut “isn’t natural at all” for him, confusing all...

Continue reading…

You may never notice, but Peloton and iFit equipment just got hit with an import ban

Peloton says it isn’t too concerned about the ITC ban. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Connected fitness giants Peloton and iFit are facing an import ban on their fitness equipment. The ban was announced today by the US International Trade Commission after a trade judge ruled that the two companies infringed on Dish’s streaming patents. While it’s hard to have connected fitness without streaming, this also isn’t Peloton or iFit’s first patent showdown.

Dish and its subsidiary Sling TV initially sued Peloton, iFit, and Lululemon in 2021. The four patents in question stem from Dish’s Hopper set-top box and relate to how the device adjusts the bitrate of a stream in real time to improve video quality. The ITC complaint was separately filed at the same time, seeking a ban on Peloton and iFit’s NordicTrack equipment, as well as...

Continue reading…

The best Mario Day deals on Nintendo Switch games and accessories

It’s-a time for his day and it’s-a time for some deals. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

It’s nearly March 10th, which, thanks to the internet and some ace brand marketing, is now Mario Day — aka, a low-key celebration of all things involving Nintendo’s beloved plumber. Most importantly, it means there are plenty of discounts and promos to take advantage of, including worthwhile deals on Nintendo games that otherwise frequently sell at full price.

This time around, the deals started early, with retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, and Target discounting a batch of physical and digital first-party Nintendo titles and various accessories. Nintendo and other retailers will also be offering a special Nintendo Switch bundle on March 10th, which includes red Joy-Cons and your choice of a digital copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, N...

Continue reading…

Inside Specialized’s quest to build the friendliest, most capable e-bike ever made

Image: Specialized

Specialized shocked the bike world when it announced it would resurrect its defunct Globe brand for an all-new lineup of e-bikes. Here’s how the company went about designing an e-bike for maximum cargo-carrying capabilities.

Continue reading…

ChatGPT is now available in Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service

Illustration: The Verge

Microsoft is making ChatGPT available in its own Azure OpenAI service today. Developers and businesses will now be able to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT model into their own cloud apps, enabling conversational AI in many more apps and services.

Businesses could use ChatGPT to power custom chatbots to handle queries from customers, provide summaries of conversations, help automate emails, and much more.

Microsoft says Azure OpenAI users can start to access a preview of ChatGPT today, with pricing set at $0.002 for 1,000 tokens. Billing for all ChatGPT usage starts on March 13th as part of Azure OpenAI. Developers will need to apply for special access, as the Azure OpenAI Service requires registration and is “currently only available to...

Continue reading…

Your path to the Diablo IV beta may be filled with sodium and regret

Image: KFC / Blizzard Entertainment

With Diablo IV right around the corner, Blizzard is teaming up with KFC to give players an early crack at the beta... for the small price of all your daily allowance of sodium. From now until March 18th, you can purchase the KFC Double Down — the chicken sandwich that eschews common sense, good taste, and health considerations by swapping out bread for two pieces of fried chicken — and receive early access to the open beta.

Buff up your game play #DiabloIV Beta Access now available with purchase of a Double Down via the KFC app or on https://t.co/LRobd1LxIL
Good luck heroes pic.twitter.com/M7nS5TvRp2

— KFC (@kfc) March 9, 2023

“For the love of everything holy do not eat a Double Down,” said The Verge wearables reviewer Victoria Song....

Continue reading…

Get the last-gen M1 iPad Pro for $200 off before it’s sold out everywhere

The 2021 iPad Pro is very similar to the newer model from 2022, but for much cheaper. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

It’s always tempting to get the latest tech so that it will last as long as possible, but iPads have lofty performance headroom that makes opting for a last-gen model easily viable. Right now, the 11-inch iPad Pro with M1 from 2021 is selling for $599 ($200 off) at Expercom, an authorized Apple dealer. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen on this very capable tablet, which is getting increasingly hard to find in stock in new condition.

The M1 iPad Pro is a lot like the newer M2 model, which was mostly a spec bump. The M1 processor is still very speedy, even now in 2023, and should easily last over five years (or more), as Apple has a good track record for offering software support. If you’re picking up a 2021 iPad Pro, you’re getting a...

Continue reading…

What’s the best student laptop? We asked students

The Dell XPS 13 is one of the best laptops for high school and college students. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Shopping for a laptop can be stressful — doubly stressful if you or your children will be learning online for the first time. Kids of different ages have a range of different laptop use cases and different needs. And as the choices for best laptop and best Chromebook evolve, so do students’ needs. So I spoke to some experts on the subject: students themselves.

My recommendations here are meant to accommodate a variety of preferences and price ranges. But they’re a jumping-off point rather than an exhaustive list: every student is different. Before making a decision, you’ll want to make sure you read reviews and try out devices yourself if you can. I’ll do my best to keep this article up to date with items that are in stock.

Best laptop...

Continue reading…

Discord starts testing ChatGPT-powered Clyde chatbot and other AI features

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Discord is now using OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology to transform its existing Clyde bot into a talkative chatbot. Clyde is being upgraded next week to answer questions and have conversations with users, much like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Microsoft’s Bing chat feature. It’s part of a broader push for AI in Discord, which also includes AI-generated conversation summaries and the ability for Discord admins to leverage AI technology to moderate servers.

The Clyde chatbot will be free for Discord users during a public experiment in a very limited number of servers with Discord alpha users next week. Discord admins will eventually be able to add the Clyde chatbot to servers to allow users to summon it into conversations and have it respond to queries...

Continue reading…

The developers behind Alto’s Odyssey tease their next release

Image: Snowman

The developers at Snowman, best known for the Alto series of chill snowboarding games, are teasing their next adventure. It’s called Laya’s Horizon... and that’s about all we know right now. The game was announced via a brief teaser, which shows off a charming seaside village among some mountains before zooming out to reveal a caped character. The description simply reads, “A whole new world is just beyond the horizon.”

While we don’t know when Laya’s Horizon will be launching or how it will actually play, we at least know where to find it. The game is coming to Netflix, which offers mobile games as part of its subscription. This will be Snowman’s second release on the platform following the unique platformer Lucky Luna, which released...

Continue reading…